


Teufort Romance

by a_meganium



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, I'll add more tags as things progress - Freeform, Other, Reader-Insert, Romance, Slow Burn, only going to tag major characters tho;;, platonic fluff, you bet your bottom dollar that's not a permanent title too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 08:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12207102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_meganium/pseuds/a_meganium
Summary: This is a whole chapter full of exposition, bear with me here, we will get to the good stuff.





	1. Chapter 1

Pulling up to your place of work, you stepped out of your van and trudged into the office building to obtain your crate numbers and delivery destination, not that you needed it. You'd been making deliveries to the same place the few months you've worked here, always to Teufort, there were lots of snickers from your coworkers when the "fresh meat" was assigned to that place- no one dared tell you what happened to the last guy who took supplies to and fro from there, but you assumed it wasn't pretty. Twelve crates to deliver today, 'not so bad' you thought to yourself as you made your way inside the supply garage and hauled open the large metal door separating it from the outside world. 

A dozen crates full of crap later, you groaned and straightened your back as you finished loading the last few crates of supplies onto the bed of your van, slamming the doors shut you rubbed your shoulders and walked to the van's driver side door, the only noise was the crunch of gravel under your feet. You always came after your coworkers left, seeing that Miss Pauling always requested you make deliveries in the evening instead. You started your van and went on your way, back to Teufort. 

If you were being completely honest, you never understood why your coworkers got so snarky and jumpy at the mention of this place. You've only met about three of the people who worked there, but all three were fairly nice. There was Miss Pauling of course, the little mousy lady who'd always greet you when you came and would make small talk as you unloaded everything and she recorded it. You got tidbits of info about the establishment from her, it was a place full of mercenaries fighting over land, hired by two brothers to duke it out. Weird way of settling a dispute like that, but it was interesting at least. She'd also tell you about some things that happened with the mercenaries that worked there, but you never had faces to put with names so it made it a little hard to follow. 

Then there was Heavy, besides Miss Pauling he was who you were most familiar with. Whenever he's not busy he'd come help you unload everything and invited you in for some water afterwards once. He was a large man, but also quiet, there was something very calming about his presence. 

The last guy you met was called Sniper (as you learned from Miss Pauling later) and you actually didn't meet him on the clock. You went out for groceries and heard him talking to his parents, he sounded sort've distressed so when the call was over you asked if he was alright. He brushed you off but gave you a small thank you and a smile, must've had a rough talk with his folks so you never thought too much of it.

Overall they seemed like nice people just trying to get a job done, at least that's how you saw them, not that your coworkers would ever give that sentiment the time of day. Letting out a small sigh, you listened to the hum of your van's engine as you drove down the long stretch of road, thinking of Miss Pauling. Her tired eyes, how she always seemed like she needed a break but was still so nice to you, you wondered why she'd work in a place like that to begin with but felt like you'd never get an answer if you actually asked her. Maybe you could ask her for a tour of the place if she's not busy just to give her a break of some sort, who knows. 

The sky was orange by the time you arrived, Miss Pauling stood behind a few boxes as you carefully backed your van into an unloading area. She smiled and said hello as you said "Good evening!" to her. She looked more tired than usual, you noted as you hauled a particularly heavy box into your arms and quickly started your way inside, she held the door open for you as you did. You went down your usual rundown of supplies- food, water, toiletries, ammunition, weaponry, same old, same old. She thanked you and then you abruptly popped the question "Hey, so, I don't have anything to do after this so if you're not busy maybe you could show me around this place?" you offered her a small, sympathetic smile, hoping she'd get the message. 

She took a glance at her clipboard, then flipped a few pages, she looked frustrated for a second and sighed. You thought she was about to tell you no when- "Yeah, actually. I can. Follow me." 

"So-" she started her tour, "this is the unloading dock, as you're familiar with already." you cocked a brow at her formality with giving a tour but shrugged it off. She took you into a rather large room with lots of machines you couldn't figure out the use of at first glance, "this is a sort of monitoring room where we keep track of wins, losses, supplies used, statistics, that sort of stuff." she gestured to the room and circled her pen in the air as she spoke, obviously disinterested, you started to feel a little bad for asking at all. She let out a sigh and asked "Do you just want to meet the mercs?", a very unamused look on her face, you shook your head and spilled the beans, "Nah, honestly I just wanted to give you a break. You look tired.". She looked surprised for a moment, but then offered you a small smile, "I appreciate the gesture but I'm okay, don't worry." 

She looked around and grabbed your elbow, quickly. "I have some work to do outside of here if you don't mind giving me a ride.". You nodded and started walking back to your van, Miss Pauling in tow, opening the passenger side door for her before walking to the driver's side. 

"Hey, do you want to stop and get some coffee? My treat." you offered to her. She thought about it for a second before smiling and nodding, brushing some of her hair out of her face and fixing her glasses.

Stopping outside of a small convenience store, the two of you pick your coffees and you paid upfront. You rose a brow when you noticed hers was completely black but she gave you a look that said "I need the caffeine" so you didn't say anything. "You do anything outside of work?" you asked her, trying to start a conversation as the two of you got back in your van and sped off. "Oh, no, not really. I don't have much time for any personal.. stuff." she looked a little sad, and embarrassed at that, but you spoke up again. "Me neither, carting stuff around in a van doesn't leave you with much free time to make friends or anything." she smiled at that "Yeah, I bet." 

"Hey, Miss Pauling?" you spoke up again. She looked at you questioningly while taking a sip of her coffee. "What's it like? Working at Teufort all the time, I mean." she looked around at nowhere in particular, just formulating an answer, and spoke up again. "I don't hate it, but it's tiring. The work itself isn't so bad, mostly management, that sort of thing. It's dealing with people a lot that wears me out." you nodded, "Anyone in particular get on your nerves?" you asked. You heard a sharp inhale come from her, "Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Oh! Oh! Make a right here!" she interrupted herself as you made a hard right towards another street. She sighed a quick sorry, you told her it was fine. "We still have a ways to go before making it to where I need to be." she stated. 

"Who gets on your nerves?" you tried carrying over the previous conversation. 

"One of the mercs, his name is Scout." she had an irritated look on her face just mentioning him.

"Oh, I don't think I've met him so.. if you want to smack talk him I have no point of reference." you nudged her shoulder and she laughed a bit. 

She exhaled, "He's a pest, sure, but he.. means well. I think." 

You nodded. 

"He makes a lot of passes at me but I'm just not interested."

"Mhm." you took a sip of your coffee. 

"I know it doesn't sound like much but it happens all the time, at least once a week, and it's just not going to happen but he keeps trying over and over, and over." she rubs her eyes. 

"No, no, it sounds annoying." you agree, trying to reassure her. "And he's kept it up for years? Sheesh."

"I think the most annoying part is that he is a nice guy, right? Under other circumstances I guess he'd make a good friend, but if I show friendly interest he'll take it as something else since he already likes me so.. ugh. I have to keep him at a distance but I think he's taking it as some stupid playing-hard-to-get thing. I'm so tired if it." she slouches down in her seat a bit before straightening back up. "Sorry."

"For what?" you look at her, and back to the road.

"I sorta blew up a bit there. Guess that was more pent up then I thought it was." she sighs.

You shake your head, "It's okay! It's good to talk it out. Do you feel any better?"

She nods, taking a big gulp of her coffee. The van was quiet after that for a little while, not uncomfortably so, but quiet. She spoke up again a few miles down the road. "Turn your headlights off. If you hear gunshots don't leave the van, I'll only be here for about an hour." you widened your eyes at her but did as she said, turning your lights off and pulling over, letting her get out. 

Sure enough, you heard gunshots and sunk down in your chair, hoping Miss Pauling was okay. You took a few sips of your coffee every now and then, sitting back up and hunching over your steering wheel. You started to wonder what the hell she's up to when you heard a small tapping on the passenger window, you jumped but saw it was her. "It's unlocked." you said, just loud enough for her to hear. She climbed back in your van, "Sorry, sorry. Hey, keep this between the two of us?" she smiled and you said "Yeah, I mean I don't want to be arrested for being an accomplice to anything." in a very 'no duh I'll keep it between the two of us' way. She let out a little relieved "Great, good, that's good" before putting on her seat belt. You turned around and didn't turn your lights back on until you were about a mile away. "Back to Teufort for you then?" you asked, she started to nod but you started again "... unless you want to.. go grab dinner with me?" her eyes widened and she checked her clipboard again. She sighed "Today must be my lucky day, yeah I'm free for dinner." you smiled, "What do you want for dinner?" she looked at her watch and laughed uncomfortably. "Breakfast. I think you mean what do you want for breakfast. It's three in the morning." 

You inhaled and shrugged. "There's an all night diner on the way back if you wanna eat there." you said. "Sounds good." she replied, you could hear her smiling. 

About an hour later the two of you pulled into the diner's parking lot, you walked to the entrance and held the door open for her, she gave you a quick thank you in passing and found a good table in the corner of the restaurant. The waitress was a small, plump elderly lady named Diana, she spoke very sweetly and took your drink orders (two more coffees, unsurprisingly) before walking off again. You discussed what to get with Miss Pauling, Diana returned with your coffees and took your orders. You rested your head in one of your hands as Miss Pauling spoke up, "So," she held her hands together like she was about to make a business proposition but her face said she was incredibly nervous, "do you want to.. help me do work? Around Teufort? If you're not busy, that is." she collapsed a bit after getting that out, as if she was allowed to breathe again. You thought about it for a moment, how tired Miss Pauling always looked was probably a direct result of her job. She did work hard, after all. You took a moment to think of the fact without you agreeing to take her to.. The middle of nowhere.... In a deserted area..... She'd have to have gone all alone, if something happened to her it's possible no one might have known for a week or maybe a month, hell it's mercenary work, right? She might have never been found again. 

You must have looked horrified because she started waving her hand in front of you with a concerned look on her face, you snapped back to reality. She smiled broadly. "Don't worry, it won't be anything too crazy." you sighed. "Yeah, I'd be happy to help." you smiled at her. She looked surprised for a moment, then relief seemed to wash over her. "Do you need me to come in the wee hours of the morning or-?" you started to ask. "Well." she began "it is currently the wee hours of the morning, so no I don't need you to do that, today at least." 

Diana returned with your food and the two of you thanked her, you made sure to take a mental note to tip her well. 

"I would appreciate it if you'd come by today around the time you'd usually bring a delivery, though." you nodded in agreement. The two of you ate pretty quickly, you paid the bill and left a tip for Diana. The two of you climbed back into your van and you sped off to Teufort, waving Miss Pauling goodbye as she got out. You left out a yawn before heading home and crashing, setting your alarm clock right before passing out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More exposition! Everyone's favorite!

"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP" the abrupt sound of your alarm going off caused you to groan, you rolled over and yawned into your pillow before begrudgingly opening your eyes. Sunlight peeked through your dark grey curtains as you stretched, slapping your hand down onto your alarm after you finished. Rubbing your eyes you got up and trudged across the room, tossing a drawer open and grabbing an old off-white shirt and some greyed out old jeans. You slipped into them quickly and trotted into your kitchen, grabbing your jacket off of the back of the chair you had tossed it over last night before passing out. Your keys jingled in the pockets as you stretched a bit more, throwing a breakfast burrito into your microwave before rummaging through your dryer for some socks. The microwave conveniently went off as you found an adequate pair to wear. 

Letting out another yawn, you took the burrito out of the microwave, scalding your fingers a bit on the hot plastic. You set it down on a counter to cool off as you haphazardly put on your socks before looking for where you kicked your boots off at last night. Passing your bathroom, you grabbed a hairbrush and went to work on your hair as you looked for your boots. You found them a few feet apart in the hallway to your room, grabbed them, and made your way back to the kitchen. You poked your burrito before deciding it was cool enough to grab, sat down, and ate it while glancing at the clock on your microwave. Three forty-seven pm, you had to be at Teufort by five to be on time. "If I leave at four I'll make it on time, no problem." you said out loud to yourself before taking another bite. 

You finished breakfast and quickly tossed your boots on before walking outside, taking a moment to adjust to the mid-afternoon sunlight, and hoped into your van. On the way there, you thought of what you'd be helping Miss Pauling with, and hoped it would be average paperwork or something ordinary like that. Something the two of you could do, easily, alone, for a few hours, making small talk and bad jokes, hearing her laugh- 

You heard someone honk their horn behind you and checked to see you were driving at thirty miles per hour in a fifty zone. Cursing at yourself for not paying attention, you rolled your window down and waved at the person behind you while speeding up.

Four fifty-five. Five minutes early. Miss Pauling wasn't outside waiting for you, but Heavy was. You parked your van and hoped out of it, smiling and giving him a small wave. He smiled back and waved for you to come inside. "It's nice to see you again!" you said, and meant it. "Yes, it is good to see you. You look well." he replied, holding the door open for you and closing it behind him. "Ah, thanks. How've you been?" you asked, trying to start small talk with him. He lead you through the building, but through a different door from the one Miss Pauling took you into yesterday, you wondered where you were headed. "Busy." he answered bluntly. 

"Sorry to hear that." you offered a small condolence but doubted he really needed it, he seemed perfectly fine. "Miss Pauling is in next building." he stated plainly, seemingly aware of what you were wondering before.

You were quiet for a moment before letting out a small "Oh! Thank you!" 

"Mm." he said softly, nodding. When he opened the next door, you started to hear guns firing as you passed through the room, it got louder as you reached the next door, your stomach sank at the thought of passing by a battle. "Is just practice, nothing to worry about." Heavy assured you, and you nodded, feeling a bit more at ease knowing it wasn't a fight. He placed his hand on your shoulder and kept you on his left side while the two of you walked into the next building. When he opened the door, you were met with the sight of Miss Pauling on the phone with someone, she sounded a bit panicked and waved for Heavy to close the door. He did, of course. 

The two of you stayed outside of the building for a bit, Heavy turned and leaned his back again the wall next to the door. You followed suit, but poked your head out from behind him to see the mercenaries practicing. All you could really see was wooden dummies splintering as bullet after bullet pierced them, but it was interesting nonetheless. Hearing the sound of a door opening, Miss Pauling walked out and spoke up "Sorry for that, surprise call from the Administrator. Shall we get started?" she smiled at you while adjusting her glasses a bit. You nodded and gave Heavy a quick thanks as you walked off with Miss Pauling. 

You placed your hands in your jacket's pockets and followed closely behind her, walking right past the training yard. Glancing over, you saw a man in a grey helmet punching the shoulder of another man, that one wearing what appeared to be a knit cap and an eye patch, while a man in a hardhat sat close by laughing and holding a small pistol. You heard the one in the grey helmet yell something about America before feeling Miss Pauling gently tug on your arm to walk faster. "So what are we doing today?" you asked, and got a quick answer, "Well, today I only had to.. uh. Take care of private matters." she carefully worded her sentence and you didn't ask her to elaborate. "I thought it would be a good idea to show you around and introduce you to the mercs, since you'll be seeing them more often." she looked back and smiled at you. "But wasn't there three back there?" you nodded your head back to the training yard. "Yeah but I'd rather not risk you getting hurt that soon." she said casually, and you nodded in agreement. 

"So you met Heavy already," she started and you nodded, "nice guy, that Heavy" you interjected before she agreed and continued, "You met Sniper, but not formally, so I thought he'd be a good start. He's usually up in his nest." she pointed upwards to a tall structure near a water tower. When seeing how far it was from the other buildings, you picked up the pace a little. "What's he like?" you inquired. "Polite, for the most part. Honestly I don't talk to him much." she answered back. 

Making it to the tower, she gestured for you to go first, and you did. The ladder was long but you made it up at a decent time. Climbing into the small, shack-like building, you looked around to see an older looking man sitting down in a fold up chair. There were a few jars full of.. something. A small wooden table with a mug placed on it, along with a hotplate and a portable coffee press. Sunlight filtered through the single window he sat behind. He was already looking at you, which caused you to jump a bit. 

You offered him a smile and he stood up out of his seat "G'd evenin'." he said in a thick Australian accent. He was taller than you remembered, and a bit more imposing now that he wasn't hunched over a phone booth talking to his parents. Glancing away from him, you noticed Miss Pauling about to make her way up and went to help her up, she said a quick thanks. You could still feel the man, Sniper, staring at you. Turning your attention back to him briefly, you saw he had taken his hat off and started to walk over to you. You opened your mouth to question him but he stuck out his hand to shake yours. "Ain't polite to wear a hat while introducin' yourself." he answered your question before you had even asked it, you smiled at his manners and shook his hand. "Nice to make your acquaintance." you attempted to match his manners, figuring that sounded more professional than 'nice to meet you'. He nodded and said hello to Miss Pauling, asking her how her day had been. She answered him quickly and bluntly, not elaborating much. You got the impression she wasn't really a fan of him, but didn't understand why, he seemed nice enough. 

She told him why you were here, how she had more people to introduce you to and said goodbye for you. You waved at him as she went back down first, "It was nice meeting you." you said quietly before making your way back down, he nodded and waved goodbye, the last you saw of him was him sitting back down and picking a book up off the floor. He must've been reading before you came to talk to him. 

Hoping off of the ladder, you nodded at Miss Pauling to continue. She began walking again, back to the area you were at before, then turned right into a large wood and brick building. "This is the commons." she said, "The mercs live in this building, mostly.". You looked around, the lights were off, the sunlight from the windows illuminated everything just fine, though. There was a staircase to the far left of the room which led up the the second floor. A large dining table was on the bottom floor, close to the entrance. No one was seated at the table, and it was completely bare, save for some cuts in the wood. There were three doorways, one on the left side and one on the right side of the room, the last was directly in front of you. The doorway directly in front of you led to a kitchen, judging by the trash can and fridge you could see peering into it. There was thin grey smoke flowing from the top of the room into the dining area. Miss Pauling walked ahead of you and peaked into the kitchen.

"Oh! Hey Pyro! What are you doing there, buddy?" she sounded like she was speaking to a little kid, but her voice was laced with concern. You heard someone mumbling, assuming their mouth was full of whatever they were cooking, you just walked over to Miss Pauling and peeked in the room. There was someone standing there, wearing a.. gas mask? No part of their body was uncovered as they stood over a pot, black smoke ascending from it, staining the ceiling. 

"Hudda hubba, huh!" they tried articulating but the mask made them hard to understand. "Well, I have a new friend for you to meet!" Miss Pauling smiled, and turned to see you already standing there. She looked a bit panicked at that, then proceeded to firmly grab your arm and then Pyro's. "Hullo!" they said, waving at you even though you were right in front of them. You waved back, a little put on edge despite their friendly demeanor. "Pyro, this is a new friend! They'll be around here with me a lot, okay?" she spoke slowly and simply. They looked to her and nodded, she looked relieved. "It's nice to meet you, Pyro!" you stammered out as friendly as possible, they looked to you and tried speaking again but it just came out as unrecognizable garbled speech, the tone was friendly enough so you assumed they were trying to say 'nice to meet you, too!'. 

"It was nice seeing you Pyro, but I need to show our friend around the rest of Teufort, okay?" she smiled at them again, less forced and more relaxed than before. They nodded at her and waved goodbye, quickly resuming their previous task of.. burning things in a pot? 

Miss Pauling sighed as she walked out of the kitchen, "Remind me to get a new soup pot.". You chuckled a bit and she counted on her fingers, one, two, three. "Okay, so, we're a third of the way done." she stated. "Hey, Miss Pauling?" you got her attention and she looked to you "It's almost six, isn't that dinner time? Shouldn't they be in the dinning room eating?" she shrugged, "They usually eat separately, the dining table was there to make the barracks more home-like but they never use it." you let out a small 'oooh' and nodded. 

The two of you walked back by the training yard, the three mercs in there previously had left the yard itself but sat on the deck of a nearby building, they looked to be sharing drinks together. They waved to you, or more likely waved to Miss Pauling. She turned to their direction and you followed, "Hey guys!" she said as you approached them. "Good day, Miss Pauling." the man in the grey helmet said in a military tone, as if trying to be formal. The man with the eye patch took a swig out of his bottle and waved, letting out a small laugh, he looked tipsy to put it lightly but there was something very charming about him. The last man, the one in a hard hat, spoke up. "So who's this?" he nodded to you, his Southern accent putting you at ease. "This is (y/n), they'll be helping me with some work around here." she answered, looking to you and smiling. "It's about time you got some help 'round here," the man in the eye patch said abruptly, "I thought the damn Administrator would just work ye to death and replace ya." he had a thick Scottish accent, and slurred his speech only slightly to your surprise. 

"Well," Miss Pauling started, "they're not here on payroll. They just offered to help me out." the three looked at you, obviously surprised, the one in the helmet stood up and saluted you while the other two smiled, the one in the eye patch looked especially relieved. "Hey, can you guys introduce yourselves? I need to go check if Medic is free." she looked to them, who all nodded. You looked at her, a little worried she was leaving you alone, "Don't worry, they're all nice." she leaned in and whispered before darting off. 

"So you're just helping Miss P out of the goodness of your heart? Well I'll be." the man in a hard hat smiled softly and took a sip from what looked to be iced tea. He extended his other hand to shake yours, and you obliged, "They call me the Engineer, but just Engie is fine, too.". You smiled and before you could say it was nice to meet him, the man in a helmet spoke up and while he continued to salute he said "I am Soldier! It's an honor to meet you!" he was loud, which caught you off guard after Engie's soft tone, but he seemed nice enough. You let out a little "At ease, Soldier" to try and be clever, but when you did he immediately said 'thank you' and sat down. The man in the eye patch snorted a bit and you turned to him, "Good ta meet'cha, I'm the Demoman.", he patted your forearm with his free hand and you smiled at him. "It's nice meeting the three of you!" you said as sincerely as you could, looking to all three up them but unsure of who to settle your gaze on. 

Engie got your attention with a small 'hey' and you looked to him, "You want something to drink?" he patted a small cooler he had rested his arm on, you'd completely overlooked it until how. You were about to wave him off and say no thank you before Demoman spoke up "Don't worry, it ain't just booze." you chuckled a bit at that and nodded to take his offer, he opened to cooler to have you take your pick when Soldier stood at attention and spoke up, he was so loud it startled you "Miss Pauling! We have successfully introduced ourselves to your new friend!" 

"Oh, great!" you heard her call back. "Medic is free for a very short time, so we have to hurry." she said while tugging your hand. You were about to be dragged again but felt something cold and wet in your other hand. Turning your head you saw Engie smiling at you, giving you a small wave, and Demoman walking back to take his seat. Looking at what was in your hand, it was a bottle of water, he must've handed it to you. You smiled and waved back, looking forward to being able to talk to those three again. 

Miss Pauling turned to look at you, she looked uneasy, a forced smile on her face "So we need to make this quick, if you're squeamish you need to say something now.". You shook your head to tell her you'd be fine, she sighed and opened a large metal door, ushering you through. 

The first thing you noticed upon entering the med bay was Heavy, standing in a doorway, his back to you and Miss Pauling. She whispered 'wait here' before walking over to Heavy and asking him something. He nodded and moved out of the way, looking back at you and nodding. You walked forward but stopped next to Heavy, looking around the room.

Oh, yikes.

The room itself was a mess, paperwork hanging out of folders on a nearby table. Blood lined a few different pieces of equipment, but looking around more you spotted a man. You assumed he was the Medic, based off of the blood on his pant leg and rag in his hand, cleaning the operating table. He looked up and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Ah, guten abend!" he said, smiling and wiping off his hand. You were about to speak up but then heard him being to speak again, "Heavy told me about you, it's nice to meet you! How has your day been so far?" he asked casually, walking towards you. There was something off about him, yet also very charming. You immediately had mixed feelings about Teufort's Medic, but tried being polite anyway. 

"It's been pretty nice, overall. Everyone here is so.. colorful." you tried putting the odd nature of these people in a kind way. He smiled. "Good to know! Vell, zis is my office, feel free to come if you are ever injured." he said, trying to be friendly. It would have worked, too, if he wasn't standing next to a bloody operating table. "I apologize but I have vork to attend to, you can come back later if you'd like!" he offered, you waved goodbye awkwardly and peeped out a tiny 'thank you' for his offer. You genuinely smiled at Heavy as you left, he smiled back, which made you lighten up after meeting the doc. 

Miss Pauling kept the large metal door from slamming shut as the two of you left, you heard her let out a sigh and cocked a brow at her. "That leaves two." she said, her feet daintily patting down the steps to meet where you stood. "Spy and Scout. I don't think they're here right now though." she stated. You wiped the water off of the bottle you were holding onto your pant leg and shrugged "I'm not in a rush if you aren't.". That made her smile at you, she gently grabbed your forearm and pulled you forward, "I can show you around the rest of the place while we wait.".

She showed you around to the remaining few buildings in this area, or as she called it, the dock. The main buildings were the barracks, med bay, storage facility, management facility, entrance, and the unnamed hallways the mercs would travel to different battlegrounds from. The sun had almost set by the time she was done, not that you minded.

You were about to offer to take her to dinner, actually take her to dinner this time, when you heard a door slam. You could hear some young man talking despite being about 20 feet from the door. Miss Pauling sighed and, begrudgingly, took your arm once more. Two men can from behind the wall leading to the outside door, a very loud young man and a silent man in a suit. The man in a suit looked irritated and exhausted, the louder one was laughing at something. As soon as the young man saw Miss Pauling he seemed to light up. "Ay! Miss P! Fancy seeing you here." he tried acting cool but Miss Pauling obviously wasn't having it. "Scout I work here." she said bluntly, turning her attention back to you and to the man in the suit. 

Everything clicked for a moment when she said 'Scout', but before you could really say anything she spoke up again "Hello Spy, this is (y/n), they're going to be helping me out with my work.". He gave you a quick rundown with his eyes, then looked you in the face and smiled, "A pleasure to meet you.". He put one hand behind his back and held the other in front of him, leaning over slightly, as if taking a small bow. You smiled back and tried to mimic his gesture, he let out a pleasant sigh at that. Something about him put you at ease, you held in a chuckle, thinking how incredibly ironic it was that you got a bad impression of the team's Medic but feel easy around their Spy. 

You saw movement out of the corner of your eye to see the younger man, Scout, crossing his arms. He had an irritated look on his face while looking at you. You looked away quickly, a pit forming in your stomach for making a bad impression immediately. There was some movement again, when you looked back you saw Scout rubbing his arm and Spy raising his hand to his face, about to light a smoke. You thought for a second and.. Did Spy elbow Scout for making you feel bad? Huh. 

"So, lemme get this straight, I ask to hang out with you and you don't have time but they get to spend all day with you?" Scout asked, as if you were getting to go on dates daily with Miss Pauling. You looked to her and she was visibly agitated. She let out a sharp exhale and said "Scout, this is (y/n), they're helping me with WORK. You know, work, that thing I have to do all the time with little to no assistance? They're helping me. With that.". You saw a look of embarrassment flash across his face, like he knew he was acting like a jerk, but it was gone as soon as you caught it. 

"Well uh, nice to meet'cha." he said flatly, twiddling his fingers. You gave him a smile that you hoped said 'no hard feelings', he grinned back. You couldn't help but notice he's.. pretty cute, honestly. All the men you saw today were easy on the eyes, though, maybe it was some weird requirement that everyone who works here has to be mildly attractive. Maybe meeting him at sunset was effecting your judgement, maybe he didn't really have soft grey-blue eyes, a cute little cocky smirk, nice little dimples that seemed to only make his smile more precious, broad shoulders-

"Goodnight guys, see you tomorrow!" Miss Pauling interrupted your train of thought, thank goodness; grabbed your hand and tugged you towards the exit abruptly. Scout tried to say something to her but she just interrupted him with another "Bye!" before opening the exit and walking out with you in tow. "Oh, you want to go to dinner with me, like actual dinner this time?" you asked without realizing until after you said it. She looked back at you, smiled, and nodded. When you asked her where to, she requested you go back to the same diner you went to last night together. Upon walking in, Diana greeted the two of you and you waved back at her.

The two of you enjoyed dinner together, "Can you come back around ten in the morning tomorrow?" Miss Pauling questioned, looking up at you and scooping some of her baked potato into her mouth. You nodded at her, she smiled back at you and the night ended the same as last night. Pay for dinner, tip Diana, drive Miss Pauling back to Teufort after grabbing a bite to eat with her, going home, and crashing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is almost shaping up to be a Miss Pauling x reader, huh?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so I'm pretty rusty with my writing, so if there's any grammatical errors or typos I urge you to let me know!! Don't leave me hanging with errors please.
> 
> I don't know how long this fic will be overall but it's slow burn so expect it to be pretty long. Oh! Since it's not actually mentioned in the fic yet, here's what the reader's outfit looks like for future reference: https://sta.sh/060m27plnyl


End file.
